Margie Myers-Culver: Great idea! I can still remember the first time I read Tuesday with a colleague. We laughed ourselves silly. The same happened with a young patron yesterday who had never seen the book.

Cathy Mere: Oh, how I do love to spend time with an author's collection. Thank you!

Julieanne Harmatz: Mary Lee,I just got a copy of the Cardboard Kingdom! I think I will move it up as my next read. I’m glad to hear the Kindle version is available. What a great way to engage and get students engaged in meaningful work right at the start of the year.

My big takeaways so far are all about building and maintaining community -- with my students AND with my families. My reflection is the story of an experience that continues to make me grateful to teach in a district where I will be able to put all of these ideas into place in my classroom.

Julieanne Harmatz: Too often we shut out those who do not think/present the way we do. Kudos to you for listening and responding from the heart. So much of the work in this book reaches beyond the classroom.

Deb Frazier: From your statement of readers needing to glean their own reflections to maintaining self-contained classroom to the art of teaching you had this reader shouting amen.

Cathy Mere: Yes, this is the right book for right now! I'm so glad you are joining the conversation again this year, Mary Lee. I always learn so much from your reflections.

This is a book that is inspiring me to rethink my teaching practices. Not that I need to do major overhaul, but VV has given me plenty of evidence for tweaks that can make my teaching so much more intentional. The only problem is that, as I read, I get lost imagining how this all could work in my classroom (the problems I would have encountered last year and the work I need to do to strengthen community so the same problems won't happen again) and I lose my place and have to reread!

I am in awe of the craft in VV's writing, as well. Do you remember that volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica with the plastic overlays of different systems of the human body? I've taken to reading each chapter in three passes as if there are overlays. First I read the main text, then add the layer of the Core Practices, and finally layer on top of it all the sections on Steering the Ship and Considering Complexity. These strata of careful thought, insightful research, and perfect examples are a peek into VV's highly organized, creative, and intelligent brain.

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Cheryl Jaret: I also like your approach to reading Vicki's text in layers and the way you described it. I think I will try it next on chapter 9!

Tammy Mulligan: This is our second read of the book and we think it will require several more reads to grasp everything in the Core Practice Sections. We read the Core Sections when wanted to learn more about essential practices.

When we took notes, we tried to capture her questions and teaching moves so that we could easily refer to them when planning lessons. So many new ideas to try in September!

Tara Smith: Yes, yes, and yes! Vicki's thinking is layered and complex, requiring many passes. This is teaching practices at a deeply intellectual level.

**A lesson to teach over and over and over again: "Sometimes writers don't come right out and tell us exactly what's happening." p. 67-68

**The core practice of noticing and naming. (Key word: PRACTICE. I need to get better at this.) p. 73-74 Also on p. 75 -- the importance of naming both WHAT and HOW readers think and make meaning.

**Chart on p. 82 "Steering the Ship" -- teaching moves to support thinking and meaning making

**Bringing in the author -- focusing readers on what an author might be trying to show us about people and life through their storyANDreminding readers that it was THE AUTHOR who "made it rain for two weeks, just as she made Rob discover a tiger and have a rash on his legs." p. 104

I'm still left wondering how my principal would respond if I posted our goal as "Complex Thinking Across Standards" and only told him AFTER the lesson exactly which standards were covered that day. Also, what change of habits would it take so that I sat down after every lesson and completed reverse documentation of the standards we'd covered?

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Mary Lee Hahn: Actually, I'm horrible at the whole goal setting thing. I struggle with the time it takes for 25+ diverse learners to set specific meaningful goals (for reading, writing, AND math) on a schedule (and often in a prescribed format) instead of diving into the meaningful work of reading, writing and math. It's like making dioramas after you read a book. As an adult reader, I never do that. I also don't sit down and write specific meaningful goals for all the various things I'll do all day long. I make to-do lists, grocery lists, randomly browse cooking websites with no particular recipe in mind, get distracted by a mess in the basement that suddenly needs immediate attention, throw all my plans out and act on a whim when friends call and say let's try out that new Mexican restaurant. Where's the authentic in measurable daily goals?!?

Margaret Simon: I love your authenticity, +Mary Lee Hahn. Setting goals seems to be a buzz phrase these days, in lesson planning and in leadership training. The goal I may set for my day would be some sort of exercise. I wander the grocery aisles looking for inspiration rather than making a plan. I think there is a wonderful article emerging.

Patricia Murphy: Thanks, +Mary Lee Hahn you are not alone with the struggle of setting Ss goals. We can keep each other in the loop.

I'm a fifth grade teacher in Dublin, OH with many years of experience considering and reconsidering my practices. Vicki reminds us, “The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” (Alan Watts), so I'm plunging, moving, and dancing. (All that work we've spend deconstructing standards and teaching the pieces, though... )

I'm looking forward to the rest of the book for insights into planning and teaching in a completely opposite way, all the while somehow remaining true to what my district expects of my teaching of the standards. Right now I'm getting (metaphorical) hives trying to imagine planning for this new kind of instruction with the 30 (highest number I've ever taught at once) learners projected for my classroom this coming year. But I trust Vicki. And I trust myself. In the meantime, I think I'll switch to DISRUPTING THINKING and see what Kylene and Bob have in store for stretching my thinking. :-)

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Jenny Lussier: I'm reading Disrupting Thinking at the same time too - sometimes they get a little mixed together - some of it is quite similar I think. Are you following the slow twitter chat of #readDTchat ? Lots of posts on Disrupting Thinking there.

You have me wondering about the standards and pieces/whole teaching. I feel like the standards are the whole (though maybe a smaller piece of a bigger pie), and the pieces are the skills/strategies/concepts we know readers need to accomplish that new understanding. The challenge becomes in knowing our readers well enough to determine the pieces that would help them get to the whole. What stones would help to cross the water (so to speak)? I'll be curious to hear what you think as you continue. These are tough questions you ask. I wonder sometimes in our push for faster progress if we don't find ourselves teaching isolated pieces more than we should. I'm sure you see the results of emphasis on pieces as students get to you.

Thanks for all of your interaction and conversation with the #cyberPD community. It is a huge time commitment and we are all learning more as a result of your thoughtful reflections.

Smiles,Cathy

Mary Lee Hahn: Cathy, now I'm pondering the way you see the standards -- as the whole rather than the pieces. You have given me a new way to think about the book, and about my teaching! THANKS!